MINUTES OF THE REGULAR BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEETING
|
City Hall
|
February 3, 2003
|
|
Council Chambers
|
7:00 p.m.
|
|
The Mayor led with the
Pledge of Allegiance.
|
|
Present: Alderman Boyd, Alderman Marshall,
Alderman Leahy, Alderwoman Mehler, Alderman
Robertson, Alderman Wynn, Alderman Cross.
City
Attorney Murphy, City Clerk/Administrator Seemayer, Zoning Administrator
Wolf, Director of Economic Development Shelton and Executive
Secretary Williams.
Absent: Alderman
Golfin and City Treasurer Reynders.
|
CONSIDERATION AND APPROVAL OF
THE AGENDA OF THE REGULAR BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEETING OF FEBRUARY 3, 2003
Motion
was made by Alderman Wynn, second by Alderman Marshall to approve and adopt the
Agenda of the Regular Board Aldermen Meeting of February 3, 2003 as delivered.
Roll call: Alderman Boyd, yes; Alderman Marshall, yes; Alderman Leahy, yes;
Alderwoman Mehler, yes; Alderman Robertson, yes; Alderman Wynn, yes; Alderman
Cross, yes.
CONSIDERATION AND APPROVAL OF
THE MINUTES OF THE REGULAR BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEETING OF JANUARY 6, 2003
Motion
was made Alderman Cross, second by Alderman Leahy to approve and adopt the
Minutes of the Regular Board of Aldermen Meeting of January 6, 2003. Roll call:
Alderman Boyd, yes; Alderman Marshall, yes; Alderman Leahy, yes; Alderwoman
Mehler, yes; Alderman Robertson, yes; Alderman Wynn, yes; Alderman Cross, yes.
CONSIDERATION AND APPROVAL OF
THE MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEETING OF JANUARY 16, 2003
Motion
was made by Alderman Boyd, second by Alderman Leahy to approve and adopt the
Minutes of the Special Board of Aldermen Meeting of January 16, 2003. Roll call:
Alderman Boyd, yes; Alderman Marshall, yes; Alderman Leahy, yes; Alderwoman
Mehler, yes; Alderman Robertson, yes; Alderman Wynn, yes; Alderman Cross, yes.
CONSIDERATION AND APPROVAL OF
THE MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEETING OF JANUARY 27, 2003
Motion
was made by Alderman Leahy, second by Alderman Wynn to approve and adopt the
Minutes of the Special Board of Aldermen Meeting of January 27, 2003. Roll
call: Alderman Boyd, yes; Alderman Marshall, yes; Alderman Leahy, yes;
Alderwoman Mehler, yes; Alderman Robertson, yes; Alderman Wynn, yes; Alderman
Cross, yes.
POLICE CHIEF SWEARING IN
Mayor
Kelly said they are very excited about the promotion of Rick Knight to the
position of police chief. He will do a great job for the City and represent
the highest standards for the community.
Mayor
Kelly asked Public Safety Chair Keith Robertson to come forward and administer
the Oath of Office to Rick Knight.
Alderman
Robertson administered the Oath of Office to Rick Knight as police chief for
Brentwood. Everyone congratulated him.
POLICE DEPARTMENT – COMMENDATIONS
Police
Chief Rick Knight came before the Board and said it is a delight to honor some
of the men and women of his department and to be able to honor a citizen and an
off duty St. Louis County police officer that helped in solving a bank robbery
in September of last year. These people need to be recognized because they
risked their lives. Officer Boedicker was off duty at the time and a friend of
his Ronald Evans also risked his life in a potentially dangerous situation.
In
September of last year the dispatcher received a call for a bank robbery that
had just occurred at the United Missouri Bank at the Brentwood Promenade. A
description had come out in regards to the suspects. Officers were
dispatched. In the interim the dispatcher received a cell phone call from
Officer Brian Boedicker that had related to the dispatcher that they were
following two armed suspects that they felt had just robbed United Missouri
Bank. They followed these individuals driving a black Ford Mustang. By their
own wits and what they saw led them to follow the suspects. They saw two
masked gunmen coming out of the bank at 3:20 p.m. in the afternoon. They fell
in behind the Mustang. While not being familiar with the streets in Brentwood
they were giving Brentwood dispatcher coordinates as to where they were.
Detectives Schultz and Carmen had monitored the radio information. They saw
the car in the 1400 to 1500 block of Brentwood Boulevard, which was going
south. They both initiated a pursuit. Detective Gibson was also involved in
it who could not be here tonight. Also involved were Officer Giacopelli and
Sergeant Elmer Phelps.
The
suspects had robbed the bank of approximately $4,400. The pursuit started on
Brentwood Boulevard, went all through Webster Groves and Kirkwood, and finally
ended in Crestwood. Officer Giacopelli was involved with the suspects vehicle
two times when it hit the right front fender and then the left front fender of
the car on two separate occasions as they were trying to allude police.
Detective Schultz who had initiated the pursuit had been snarled in traffic at
one time and Elmer Phelps maintained the constant visual of the suspects.
Ultimately the suspects ended up crashing into a yard. One of the individuals
that was driving had inflicted a gunshot wound to his head. The other suspect
was seated in the right front passenger seat. Elmer Phelps was also involved,
along with Detective Schultz, in keeping the driver that had inflicted himself
with the gunshot wound alive. Detective Schultz handcuffed the suspect and
Sergeant Phelps tried to create an airway in order to save the man’s life.
Sergeant Phelps is not only doing his job but is definitely a compassionate
individual and doing what he has been trained to do. Hattie Carmen was on the
scene. She was assigned to go to the hospital with the subject that inflicted
the gunshot wound. At the hospital, Hattie Carmen had worked closely with the
FBI. They knew nothing of either one of the individuals. She worked in
contacting family members, friends and trying to find the background of the
individual that was still alive at the hospital.
Detective
Schultz brought the other suspect back to the station and was able to obtain a
confession. All efforts coordinated and it resulted in warrants being issued
for both of those individuals for robbery first and armed criminal action. The
self-inflicted victim passed away at the hospital a couple of days later.
You
have to imagine the type of situation that was going on at the time with the
dispatchers involved. They coordinated the pursuit. Any type of communication
has to go through the dispatcher. Janet Brennan and Jason Oesterreicher were
the two dispatchers involved in that.
Police
Chief Knight asked Police Officer Boedicker and Mr. Ronald Evans to come
forward. He presented them with citizen recognition awards. He also asked
Detective Barney Schultz, Detective Hattie Carmen, Detective Chris Gibson,
Patrolman Joe Giacopelli, Sergeant Elmer Phelps, Dispatcher Janet Brennan and
Dispatcher Jason Oesterreicher to come forward and presented them with departmental
commendations.
FINANCE DEPARTMENT – CERTIFICATE OF ACHIEVEMENT
AWARD
Mayor
Kelly said this would be the third year in a row that the accounting office has
received the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting.
They work very hard to reach this standard every year. As an elected official
in the City there is no higher responsibility than making sure the funds that
are given to them by the residents of the City are accounted for and properly
used. The accounting staff takes their jobs very seriously. They try to excel
to the highest level. This award is proof that they try to reach that
standard. They are very proud of them and appreciate the hard work they do for
the City.
Mayor
Kelly asked Finance Officer Susan Zimmer, Assistant Finance Officers Karen
Mosby and Jackie Radovich to come forward. Dottie Higginbotham was unable to
attend. She takes part in this award every year as well. Mayor Kelly
congratulated the accounting staff.
BIDS – None
HEARING OF ANY MATTER OF
PUBLIC INTEREST UPON REQUEST OF ANY PERSON PRESENT
Jim
Fiete – 2201 Parkridge came before
the Board and said he is representing many of the citizens in the Parkridge
subdivision and members of the Parkridge Improvement Association. Around
November 11th 2001, he stood before the Board and asked for their
assistance. The Board gave him that assistance. They had a problem and it was
resolved. At that point he also made two requests. They would like to again
be involved in the development process, planning and construction phases of any
home or homes being built in their subdivision. That the Parkridge subdivision
be maintained with respect to its architectural integrity at least until the
City of Brentwood receives the report from the St. Louis University Brentwood
Housing Study and can formulate a master plan for the Brentwood community and
the many subdivisions in its boundaries. Once again they face a possible tear
down of a beautiful ranch style home at 2006 St. Clair. The possible builder chooses
to tear down a brick home and replace it with two frame homes. As an
association and citizens of Brentwood they ask the Board again for their
assistance, leadership and guidance.
Two
new homes are going up right across the street from his home. They are both
100% brick. That is probably the number one item they would look for in their
subdivision, since approximately 98% of the homes are brick. They would like
to maintain that part of the character.
Ed
Ellerman - Developer came before the
Board and said he is not a resident of Brentwood but a developer who appeared
before the Board last spring. At that time they promised the Board to consult
with the neighborhood before they proceeded and to follow the guidelines they
were going to present to them as well as the guidelines that were presented at
the meeting last spring.
He
is very pleased to tell everyone that they were able to keep all those
promises. Both of the homes are sold. One is under construction. The second
one is about to start this week. When they made those promises last year they
assumed a great deal of risk. They stuck their necks out a little bit but they
were very confident that they were going to succeed. He has had about 30 years
of experience in the old town of Clayton and Ladue. It was their intention to
bring a certain level of quality to this area. They were very pleased with the
support they received from the Board and the neighborhood. In order to achieve
this success they took a significantly lower margin than they normally would.
They were hoping at the time and had worked on the idea of getting tax
abatement. Through the fault of no one there has been a problem. He asked
that the Board help to avail them of some of the tax abatement. The two houses
sold for over $600,000.
Mayor
Kelly said the Board was aware of the potential project that was going in
there. The residents were concerned that the type of homes that were going to
be built there would not fit the neighborhood. At that time this developer
stepped forward and made their proposal, got together with the neighbors and
tried to take into account what the neighborhood wanted. When the developer
realized they were going to be making that type of investment into those homes,
they started the process of their own 353 Corporation for those two
properties. The problem they are having with setting up their own 353
Corporation is the homes sold a lot faster than they thought they would. Their
construction is going faster than the tax abatement process. So they wanted to
come before the Board to see how they felt about granting tax abatement on the
two homes. It is getting very costly to set up that abatement. The abatement
would be approximately $30,000 to $35,000 over a 10-year period per house.
Alderman
Leahy asked Mr. Ellerman why his group is trying to form their own tax
abatement corporation versus using the 353 Corporation of Brentwood.
Mayor
Kelly said they thought it would be faster but it is not.
Tom
Kramer – 9055 N. Swan Circle came
before the Board and said he is here with his partner Ed Ellerman asking for
the Board’s discretion and potential review by a subcommittee or other group.
HEARING OF ANY MATTER OF PUBLIC INTEREST UPON REQUEST OF
ANY PERSON PRESENT
Presentation of Recreation Needs Assessment
Mayor
Kelly said Michele deJong, Director of Parks and Recreation is here tonight.
She has done a great job in leading the Parks Department and the City
appreciates the work she has done. Late last year, Mrs. deJong undertook the
process of surveying the residents and trying to get their feel of what they
thought the future needs of the Parks Department would be.
Michele
deJong, Director of Parks and Recreation came before the Board and introduced
the consultants that will give the presentation. Pat O’Toole with Leon Younger
& PROS and Ron Vine with ETC/Leisure Vision Incorporated.
Ron
Vine – ETC/Leisure Vision Incorporated
came before the Board and said they completed for the City of Brentwood Parks
& Recreation a Needs Assessment Survey. Four Hundred and One (401) surveys
were completed. The survey has a 95% level of confidence with a margin of
error of plus or minus 4.9%. The survey covered a full range of usage,
satisfaction needs, barriers, partnership and funding issues. It was a
mail/phone survey. They also did cross tabs by key factors including each of
the survey results by gender and age of the respondent over 18 years of age,
and whether they participate in recreation programs right now or not, and if
they are using the Richmond Heights Community Center or not. They made
comparisons over the results with their national benchmarks. Their firm has
done more needs assessments for parks and recreation projects than any other
company in the country. Over the last five years they have done needs
assessment surveys for parks and recreation projects in 150 communities in 35
states. Their firm is located in the Kansas City area. Their largest customer
base is the state of Missouri. They have done over 30 surveys in the state of
Missouri over the last four years. He will refer to national benchmarks. When
he does he would be saying this is how Brentwood relates to the surveys that
they have done in those other communities.
Mr.
Vine went over the entire Needs Assessment Survey. The survey is featured on
the City of Brentwood website and is also available at the Parks and Recreation
Department for viewing.
After
the survey was presented, Mr. Vine offered to answer any questions the Board
may have.
Alderman
Boyd said Mr. Vine mentioned that the survey was a combination of mail back as
well as telephone.
Mr.
Vine said most of the survey was by mail.
Alderman
Boyd asked if the result has been stratified by ward.
Mr.
Vine said no.
Alderman
Boyd asked what was the process of randomly generating the addresses.
Mr.
Vine said a firm out of New York does the random sampling. They specialize in
generating random sampling lists. The firm supplied them the list and they
took it from there.
Alderman
Leahy said one of the slides showed that 100% of the respondents participated
in the program. He is curious as to why they saw no respondents for
non-participation in any of the park program.
Mr.
Vine said of all of the people who said “yes”, 100% of them participated in
some program. That particular cross tab was based on whether you participated
in the programs or not. The one right below it was based on whether you use
the Richmond Heights Community Center or not.
Alderman
Wynn said a city has certain facilities and people use them. In doing the
survey, if other facilities were included would that have changed the figure?
Mr.
Vine said it takes into consideration the question in regards to who utilizes
your recreational facilities. They recommend that communities ask that
question because there are many other providers. It is important to understand
that if people utilize your system but they also utilize others, which one do
they utilize the most. That question was put in specifically for that purpose.
They measured public facilities. The usage will not change if you utilize a
public facility or not, because you are still going to have the same answer
even if others were added. It may change by the highest priority.
Many
of the questions they asked in the survey were driven by the focus groups.
They utilized that from a quantitative standpoint to determine what issues they
should test.
Alderman
Robertson said in communities that have ice facilities how does Brentwood
compare in that respect.
Mr.
Vine said he has to go back and look that up. Not as many communities have ice
rinks as some others.
Alderman
Leahy said the other skew that he sees in the survey is the fact that they do
have the Brentwood Swim Club that allows its membership in it, the partnership
with the Maplewood Pool for external outdoor use and Richmond Heights. Based
on those skews, does that explain why the walking trails now seem to be the
more desired. Those facilities are available just within this neighborhood
area.
Mr.
Vine said last year they did about 40 something parks and recreation surveys.
Nationwide, walking and biking trails is the number one thing people want to
develop. Brentwood usage right now is lower than many communities. One of the
big reasons is that you have not met market need.
Alderman
Marshall said one of the slides showed the need for an aquatic center was 20%.
Last year Maplewood opened their pool. He asked if that number would go down
once the novelty of the new pool is gone.
Mr.
Vine said when the novelty of the new pool goes Brentwood would be headed in
the opposite direction. It is showing that you have an unmet demand in this
community for outdoor swimming from a leisure standpoint. Right now that
partnership is only meeting about 50% of that market. Maybe an alternative
strategy would be to market that partnership and see in a couple of years if
that usage goes up. Once people know about it you may not have to build your
own because that is meeting the needs the same way Richmond Heights is.
Alderman
Boyd said he noticed that schools are not listed on chart Q12.
Mr.
Vine said the questions were developed from a focus group. It was not an
intentional oversight.
Alderman
Boyd asked Mr. Vine if he could run cross tabs on chart Q18 and show what those
look like by age groups.
Mr.
Vine said yes.
Michele
deJong on behalf of the Parks and Recreation Division thanked all the Board
members for supporting this process and allowing them to go through it. They
are very anxious to start planning for the next five years and using this
information to do that.
Mayor
Kelly asked if a question was asked on what type of financing residents would
support for new facilities. Would taxpayers support a bond issue in order to build
a new facility?
Michele
deJong said they just asked a combination question of if they thought it should
be self-supporting, supported by taxes or a combination of both.
Alderman
Boyd suggested taking some of the percentages and stepping them up to actual
persons, so that when you look at a 52% figure you would have some idea in
terms of the actual population that is represented in Brentwood.
Mr.
Vine thought it was a great suggestion. Their firm just started doing that on
some surveys and the clients really like it.
INTRODUCTIONS, READINGS, AND PASSAGE OF BILLS AND
RESOLUTIONS – NONE
ACCOUNTS AGAINST THE CITY
Motion
was made by Alderman Cross, second by Alderman Robertson to approve the revised
warrant list dated February 3, 2003. Roll call: Alderman Boyd, yes; Alderman
Marshall, yes; Alderman Leahy, yes; Alderwoman Mehler, yes; Alderman Robertson,
yes; Alderman Wynn, yes; Alderman Cross, yes.
REPORTS OF COMMITTEES AND DEPARTMENT HEADS:
Mayor’s Report
Tear Downs and Rebuilds
Mayor
Kelly said with respect to tear downs and rebuilds in the City of Brentwood,
last week they received permits to the City for three tear downs and another
new home is to be built on a vacant lot. The City needs to come up with some
architectural standards for how they want to proceed. He is going to challenge
the Planning and Zoning Commission to set up a subcommittee to look into
establishing some architectural standards for the entire Brentwood community.
That also touches in the line of the developers that are requesting some tax
abatement because of the high quality homes they wanted to build in the City of
Brentwood. Real estate sells for a premium in the City of Brentwood. If the
City wants to encourage additional investment and have high quality homes, then
the City may need to offer developers some type of abatement so they can go
that extra mile to build that type of quality home.
For
example, the reason he has an aversion to architectural standards, is in
Clayton a disabled resident wanted to build a handicap ramp up to their home,
which was going to cost them $15,000 to build. When it went to Clayton
architectural review board so they could incorporate their standards, it was
going to cost this resident $90,000 to build the ramp. Not that they had
standards that they could follow, but the architectural review board was
putting their opinions on what they thought should be there because they were
taking the opinions of the neighbors. As a City if we want to set up some
standards and have some quality to look for then that is something they need to
look seriously at as they start to see more of these tear downs and rebuilds
within the City. It is not just developers. The City is seeing residents
tearing down their homes and rebuilding.
Mayor
Kelly asked Chairman Geppert if they could set up a subcommittee to look into
those architectural standards for the City.
Alderman
Boyd said the members of the Planning and Zoning Commission being highly
skilled in many different areas probably are not equipped to develop the type
of standards that the City might be looking for. They may be very well
equipped to survey some of our other communities or find consultant help.
Would the Board consider hiring a professional to help get those standards constructed?
He asked if the Board would be willing to entertain the concept of a moratorium
on tear downs until those standards are developed.
Mayor
Kelly said you do not want to stifle improvements to the neighborhoods. It is
something the City needs to address as soon as possible. He does not want to
stop people from building new homes in the City.
TIF Meeting
Mayor
Kelly said last week the first TIF meeting was held for the Costco and MLP
projects. The next scheduled meeting is February 20th at 6:00 p.m.
at City Hall.
City Auction
The
Parks Department is scheduling a city auction. It will be some time in May
where they will be auctioning off surplus city equipment.
Hanley Road Project
A
steering committee meeting was held for the Hanley Road project last week,
which is being headed by St. Louis County Highway, Maplewood, Brentwood and
Richmond Heights. He was asked to serve on that committee. It is a great
project and they are moving forward very quickly to try to get some designs and
plans for Hanley Road and also how to fund that project.
Metro Link Stop
He
and Bob Shelton met with County Executive Buzz Westfall to talk about the
Strassner extension with respect to the Metro Link stop. Things are looking
very good. This is a very important and good project, not only for Metro Link
but also for that east-west corridor going through Brentwood to help relieve
some of those traffic issues on Hanley and Eager Roads. Metro Link and St.
Louis County are excited about the MLP project being a true transit oriented
development, which is the first along the Metro Link line in St. Louis. They
are hoping that type of development built along the Metro Link line will help
the Metro Link process move along faster in the future.
Public Safety Committee – No report
Public Works Committee – No report
City
Engineer – No report
Parks – No report
Zoning
Administrator – No report
Ways
and Means Committee – No report
Planning
and Zoning – No report
City
Attorney – No report
City
Clerk/Administrator – No report
Director of Economic Development – No
report
Excise
Commissioner – Temporary Liquor
License Request for St. Mary Magdalen Church
Alderman
Cross said she has before her an application from St. Mary Magdalen Church for
a temporary liquor license for their parish picnic on May 30 and 31.
Motion
was made by Alderman Cross, second by Alderman Leahy to grant the temporary
liquor license request for St. Mary Magdalen Church for their parish picnic.
Roll call: Alderman Boyd, yes; Alderman Marshall, yes; Alderman Leahy, yes;
Alderwoman Mehler, yes; Alderman Robertson, yes; Alderman Wynn, yes; Alderman
Cross, yes.
Library
Alderman
Wynn said the library is getting ready to move to a trailer in the parking lot
in March, so the renovations could begin on the library building.
Municipal League – No report
Waste
Management Commission – No report
Stormwater
Management – No report
Communication
Alderman
Marshall said he has spoken to one of the school board members about putting
the board meetings on Brentwood TV 10.
Facilities
Committee – No report
Insurance
Committee – No report
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
NEW BUSINESS
ADJOURNMENT
Motion
was made by Alderman Boyd, second by Alderman Marshall to adjourn the meeting
at 8:35 p.m. All in favor, none opposed.
Pat
Kelly, Mayor
Attest:
Chris
Seemayer, City Clerk